#15 Du Pont family

#15 Du Pont family

2016 America's Richest Families NET WORTH

$14.3B

as of 6/29/16

The du Pont fortune dates back more than 200 years and is shared among an estimated 3,500 family members. A prisoner during the French Revolution, E.I. du Pont fled Europe in 1799 for America, where he founded the company that continues to make his descendants rich today. DuPont started as a gunpowder manufacturer, later expanding into dynamite, paints, plastics, dyes and materials. Its scientists invented nylon, Kevlar and Teflon. Family members no longer run the company, which has evolved into a chemicals giant, but they still hold a substantial chunk of its shares. In December 2015, DuPont and Dow Chemical announced that they would merge and split into three independent companies; the merger awaits the government's antitrust review. Pierre S. "Pete" du Pont IV (pictured above) was governor of Delaware from 1977-1985 and ran for president in 1988. Du Pont heir Robert Richards made national news in March 2014 when it came out that he had previously pled guilty to raping his three-year-old daughter. He was not the first member of the family to get in trouble with the law. In 1996 John E. du Pont murdered Olympic gold medal wrestler David Schultz. The story was retold in the 2014 film Foxcatcher, which was produced by another heir, Megan Ellison, daughter of billionaire Larry Ellison.